But after speaking privately with defense and prosecuting attorneys, Superior Court Judge David Sweat postponed the arraignment so that officials with the state Department of Human Resources can examine Tiegreen.

"We'll defer entry of any plea until we've completed some additional steps," the judge said.

Defense attorney Mike Weaver hopes the evaluation will lead to a civil trial and that a jury will decide that Tiegreen should not face criminal charges.

Tiegreen lacks impulse control from the severe brain injury he suffered in a car crash when he was 16.

He has been institutionalized much of the time since that 2001 wreck, and at the time of the Sept. 11 assault in Northwestern Clarke County was living in a duplex on Cameron Court, off Vaughn Road. The duplex was leased by ResCare Inc., which provides services to people with disabilities.

Two ResCare workers were supposed to watch over Tiegreen 24 hours a day, and four workers were there changing shifts when he ran off.

The people in charge of watching Tiegreen are more to blame for the assault on the 34-year-old victim. She was holding her 20-month-old son in her own yard in the Sterling Woods subdivision next to Cameron Court when Tiegreen forced her to the ground, pulled her shirt over her head and put his hand in her pants, according to authorities.

"I don't want to forget the victim at all," Weaver said. "Chris' family is horrified beyond words about what happened.

"But four people were in the home when Chris got loose - they must've broken every rule in the book," he said.

The DHR had prepared a 25-page "individual support plan" describing how Tiegreen should be monitored. Among other things, the plan said that Tiegreen's lack of impulse control makes him a danger to others and he must be watched constantly, with someone always no more than an arm's-length away, according to Weaver.

Even if a jury decides that Tiegreen is incompetent to stand trial on the criminal charges, finding somewhere to send him to live will be a challenge because he is neither mentally retarded nor mentally ill, Weaver said.

"Chris has traumatic brain injury, so he can't be civilly committed" to a hospital or other institution, he said.

"There are special places that can keep people with brain injury under control in a dorm-like setting that's not a jail, but not somewhere they can leave," Weaver said.